Smoking articles, such as cigarettes, have a substantially cylindrical rod-shaped structure and include a charge, roll, or column of smokable material, such as shredded tobacco, surrounded by a paper wrapper, to form a “cigarette rod,” “smokable rod,” or a “tobacco rod.” Normally, a cigarette has a cylindrical filter element aligned in an end-to-end relationship with the tobacco rod. Typically, a filter element comprises plasticized cellulose acetate tow circumscribed by a paper material known as “plug wrap.” Certain cigarettes incorporate filter elements comprising, for example, activated charcoal particles. Typically, the filter element is attached to one end of the tobacco rod using a circumscribing wrapping material known as “tipping paper.”
A cigarette is used by a smoker by lighting one end of that cigarette, and burning the tobacco rod. The smoker then receives mainstream smoke into his or her mouth by drawing on the opposite end of the cigarette. During the time that the cigarette is not being drawn upon by the smoker, the cigarette remains burning.
Regulations have been imposed by some states that require cigarettes and other smokable articles to exhibit certain self-extinction (SE) rates. Paper for smokable articles that meet such standards is known as “Fire Standard Compliant” (FSC) paper. To meet these self-extinction standards, some paper for smokable articles includes intermittent bands of materials (that in some instances can be film-forming materials) that reduce paper porosity, or permeability. Reducing paper porosity can control the supply of oxygen to the smokable material, thereby controlling ignition propensity.
Numerous attempts have been made to control the manner that a cigarette burns when the cigarette is not being drawn upon. For example, cigarette papers have been treated with various materials to cause cigarettes incorporating those papers to self extinguish during periods when those cigarettes are lit but are not being actively puffed. Certain treatment methods have involved applying materials to the paper in circumferential bands or longitudinal stripes, creating areas that affect the burn rate of cigarettes incorporating that cigarette papers. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,030,963 to Cohn; U.S. Pat. No. 4,146,040 to Cohn; U.S. Pat. No. 4,489,738 to Simon; U.S. Pat. No. 4,489,650 to Weinert; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,615,345 to Durocher; U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. 2002/0185143 to Crooks et al.; U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. 2003/0145869 to Kitao et al.; U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. 2003/0150466 to Kitao et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,854,469 to Hancock et al. In addition, numerous references disclose applying films to the paper wrapping materials of tobacco rods. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,909,924 to Schweitzer; U.S. Pat. No. 4,607,647 to Dashley; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,675 to Milford et al.; U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. 2003/0131860 to Ashcraft et al.; and U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. 2004/0231685 to Patel et al.
“Banded” paper wrapping materials that are used for cigarette manufacture possess segments defined by the composition, location, and properties of the various materials within those wrapping materials. Numerous references contain disclosures suggesting various banded wrapping material configurations. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,996,002 to Seaman; U.S. Pat. No. 2,013,508 to Seaman; U.S. Pat. No. 4,452,259 to Norman et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,417,228 to Baldwin et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,753 to Peterson et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,754 to Peterson et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,198,537 to Bokelman et al.; and PCT Publication No. WO 02/37991. Methods for manufacturing banded-type wrapping materials also have been disclosed. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,739,775 to Hampl, Jr. et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,095 to Allen et al.; and PCT Publication No. WO 02/44700 and PCT Publication No. WO 02/055294. Some of those references describe banded papers having segments of paper, fibrous cellulosic material, or particulate material adhered to a paper web. See, U.S. Pat. No. 5,263,999 to Baldwin et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,417,228 to Baldwin et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,863 to Collins et al.; and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0092621 to Suzuki. Methods for manufacturing cigarettes having treated wrapping materials are set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,191,906 to Myracle, Jr. et al. and PCT Publication No. WO 02/19848.
Additive materials can be applied to cigarette paper wrapping materials during the time that those wrapping materials are being used for cigarette manufacture (i.e., in a so-called “on-line” fashion). However, water-based formulations incorporating those additives, and the paper wrappers to which the additives are applied, have a tendency to remain wet when the additive-treated wrapper reaches the garniture section of the cigarette making machine. Consequently, for example, the additive materials that are applied to a paper web tend to rub off of the paper and onto components of the finger rail assembly that is located near the garniture end of the suction rod conveyor of the cigarette making machine, and onto the tongue and folder components that are located in the garniture region of the cigarette making machine. A build-up of additive material on certain regions of the cigarette making machine can cause cigarette rod formation problems, paper breaks, and machine downtime for cleaning. Such an undesirable tendency for additive materials to transfer from the paper web to surfaces of the cigarette machine is increased with increasing speed of manufacture of the continuous cigarette rod.
It would be desirable to apply additive material in a controlled manner as a predetermined pattern (e.g., as bands) to a continuous strip of wrapping material of the type that is used for the manufacture of smokable rods. As such, it would be desirable to supply a continuous strip of paper web from a roll, apply additive material to that paper strip, and wind that resulting treated paper web on a roll for later use on an automated cigarette making machine (i.e., it would by desirable to provide treated wrapping material in a so-called “off-line” fashion). It also would be highly desirable to provide cigarettes having predetermined patterns of additive materials (e.g., as bands) applied in desired locations to the wrapping materials of those cigarettes, particularly using on-line processes during cigarette manufacture. It also would be desirable to apply additive materials to a continuous web of a wrapping material of a tobacco rod in an efficient and effective manner during the manufacture of that tobacco rod. It also would be desirable to ensure that the wrapping material so treated with additive material meets standards of quality desired by the manufacturer of those tobacco rods. It also would be desirable to apply an additive material onto a web of paper wrapping material in such a manner that reduces the amount of pressure needed to apply the additive material so as to maintain the integrity of the paper and thereby provide paper opacity at a level acceptable for commercial production of smokable rods. It also would be desirable to provide a method for minimizing or preventing transfer of an additive material on a paper web to a cigarette making machine surface; and it also would be desirable that such method operate effectively and be easily implemented within a conventional automated cigarette making machine of the type used to produce commercial quantities of cigarettes.